The Capitals have been playing one-period games far too much recently and they finally got burned. Washington jumped out to another early lead and then let the Maple Leafs do whatever they wanted for about half an hour, losing 4-3 in overtime.
I don’t really have the words for how terrible those final 6-8 minutes of the third period were.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2024-11-13:#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/KdMn5Zpja5
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) November 14, 2024
- The early-season Capitals domination seems to be fading and that’s…concerning. This is the second straight home game they’ve let a tired team come into Capital One Arena and make them look like AHLers for an entire half of a game. They recorded just 10 five-on-five shots in the final forty minutes. Spencer Carbery was rightfully furious postgame and just from a personal standpoint, I don’t think I’ve been that mad at the end of a Capitals’ game in like five years. But, what does that tell me? Expectations have changed in a good way. Now, it’s up to the Caps to actively respond and keep their hands on the wheel.
- We like to point out a lot of good in these posts, but we’re going to need to talk about the two worst individual plays of the night for this one. I have no idea what Tom Wilson is doing with that puck on Toronto’s second goal. He has an easy path up the boards and instead feeds it right to Matthew Knies. I was honestly surprised Carbery gave Wilson another shift after that turnover. Then, a frustrated Nic Dowd completely takes his team out of the game with an obvious and horrible cross-checking penalty in the final minute of regulation. Just blatantly unacceptable stuff from two of the main leaders on the team. I’m sure they know that, though. You’ll want to see them be especially good against Colorado on Friday to make up for it.
- Jakob Chychrun looked particularly off his game as well and as you can tell by the impact card, the stats matched the eye test. With Chychrun on the ice five-on-five, the Maple Leafs scored a goal and recorded eight high-danger chances against Washington. One of those chances, Max Domi’s breakaway attempt, came directly from a brutal Chychrun turnover at the blueline.
Rasmus Sandin recorded the primary assist on Protas' goal, extending his point streak to three games (2g, 1a). Sandin's three-game point streak is tied for the longest of his career.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 14, 2024
- Washington has struggled mightily when playing with a lead in November. When up at least a goal this month at five-on-five, they are seeing just 43 percent of the shot attempts, 39.8 percent of the expected goals, 45.5 percent of the scoring chances, and 47.9 percent of the high-danger chances. That expected goals percentage is the seventh worst in the NHL.
- Logan Thompson was brilliant in some moments, and the team in front of him was awful, so I’m not gonna judge this game too much. I do think he should be at least trying to come out of his net to play the rolling puck that John Tavares caught up to for the game-winner. I understand the hesitation and final decision, though. He ended the night with 31 saves on 35 shots.
- This one is ugly. The Capitals are now 1-7-2 against Toronto in their last 10 games against the Leafs. They haven’t won consecutive home, regular-season games against Toronto since two wins on March 2, 2016 and February 3, 2017.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
